Some Taser uses by troopers in question; state police defend their use

Mar. 17, 2013

In this file photo from December 2011, a City of Poughkeepsie Police officer is shown how to properly use a Taser X26 device during a training session. The New York State Police also use the Taser X26. / Darryl Bautista/Poughkeepsie Journal

Written by

Vinayak Balasubramanian and Mary Beth Pfeiffer

Poughkeepsie Journal

ABOUT THIS SERIES

Shocked Into Submission is a series of articles on the growing use of stun guns among police agencies, based on the analysis of more than 500 police reports obtained under the Freedom of Information Law. In previous installments, the Journal found: • Soaring use of stun guns from 2006 to 2010, with the number of reports rising from 30 to 100 and departments using the device climbing from 8 to 19. • Potential overuse or misuse, with at least three dozen people stunned when running away or refusing orders; at least 50 people shocked three or more times; and 60 shocked in the chest. • A lack of oversight; police agencies aren’t required to report use, policies or even deaths related to stun guns to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. Some local policies permitted use simply to “effect an arrest.” • A racial disproportion in targets, with blacks stunned two to five times more than their representation in selected communities.

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Seventy percent of people shocked by stun guns under a state police field test of the device were mentally ill, suicidal or under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and a quarter were not hostile or combative, according to an exclusive Poughkeepsie Journal review of Taser reports obtained under the Freedom of Information Law.

The review, of 91 Taser reports from December 2010 through April 2012, revealed problems with stun-gun use similar to those found in a previously reported Journal study of 467 reports by 19 local agencies. Indeed, while troopers used the painful and debilitating device on subjects who were highly aggressive — 1 in 5 carried a weapon — the reports show they also shocked a dozen people who were fleeing police with little or no indication that they posed a threat, a practice that guidelines of the U.S. Department of Justice discourage.

Stun guns, most commonly the Taser brand, have become a popular, “less lethal” option for police, with 394 of 500 state forces trained to use them. Local officers say they bring a quick end to potentially violent confrontations, while studies show they reduce suspect and officer injuries. State police spokeswoman Darcy Wells said that all Taser uses under the statewide pilot program have been evaluated by the agency and ruled justified.

“The Division of State Police … use only such force as is reasonable and necessary to control a situation or effect an arrest,” she wrote in an email, “while protecting their own well-being and that of others.”

There are no mandatory rules in New York that govern the use of stun guns, which deliver an electrical jolt through twin darts on copper wires, causing immobilizing muscle contractions. Individual agencies are not required to report stun-gun uses, injuries or deaths to state authorities, and their policies can vary widely. The state police policy, for example, makes no mention of the mentally ill, a group considered at “heightened risk” in the federal guidelines.

Those guidelines, which themselves are nonbinding, say the weapons “should be used only against subjects who are exhibiting active aggression or … resisting in a manner … likely to result in injuries” to police or others. But the state police reports failed in at least a quarter of cases to document such aggression, in part, perhaps, because the one-page reports leave no room for detailed descriptions of events and give limited information.

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In one 2011 case, a man, 20, “failed to follow verbal directions” after a trooper allegedly found him painting graffiti on a building in Hyde Park; he was shot with Taser darts from 4 feet away, the report says. In another, a 36-year-old man fled after his car was pulled over in Wallkill, Orange County; he was shocked from 15 to 18 feet away after failing to follow police orders, according to the report.

And while many cases did involve aggressive subjects, some of those raised questions too. A 13-year-old who punched a trooper in Westchester County, for example, was shocked mid-chest three times. The guidelines warn of the risk of cardiac arrest in chest hits — the manufacturer advises against it — and the heightened danger of using stun guns on minors.

A Syracuse woman died of cardiac arrest last June after she was shocked twice by a state trooper while high on drugs, according to police reports. Wells declined to comment on the case and did not address emailed questions about specific cases that did not appear to meet federal guidelines.

The state police program, begun more than two years ago, is still in its pilot stage, Wells said. Some 800 troopers have been trained to carry the division’s 190 Tasers, she said. Records showed the device was used 23 times in Troops F and K, which include Dutchess, Ulster and other downstate counties; Dutchess and Ulster each had three cases in which stun guns were used, two involving suspects wielding knives, the records showed. (Five other downstate cases involved Thruway police.)

The Journal’s previous study, published periodically from February 2012 to June, found local deviations from the federal stun-gun guidelines. About three dozen people were stunned as they fled from police after allegedly committing minor crimes or failing to follow orders; 50 were shocked three or more times, and 60 were stunned in the chest. The study was based on documents obtained through about 50 Freedom of Information Law requests over 18 months.

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Improved oversight

In response to the Journal’s series, Jeffrion Aubry, speaker pro tem of the state Assembly, introduced legislation in early March to establish uniform guidelines for stun-gun use and reporting, with the state Division of Criminal Justice Services issuing an annual report on trends.

“While Tasers are a vital tool for law enforcement,” the Queens Democrat said in a memo supporting the legislation, “the state should ensure that all police and peace officers who use Tasers are properly trained in their use and know when it is appropriate to use them.” Aubry, former chairman of the Committee on Correction, needs a Senate sponsor to carry the bill, which would require passage in both houses and a signature by the governor to become law.

Such a law would address a lack of documentation in police reports studied by the Journal. The state police reports lack a place for a narrative description of events, instead providing a series of check-off boxes — to indicate whether suspects were “hostile,” “combative,” “alcohol influenced” and so on. Only limited space is provided for several-word summaries on the nature of the incident, the situation upon arrival and injuries.

Among the 91 people stunned by state police Tasers, the Journal study of state police reports found:

• Twenty-two subjects were not listed as combative or hostile before they were shocked.

• Twenty-eight were mentally ill; 31 were suicidal, and 38 were drug-influenced.

• Four received five or more shocks, and 10 received three.

• Four-fifths were unarmed, and four were age 16 or younger.

While intoxicated and mentally disturbed people involved in police situations are often unruly and threatening, they are also at greater risk of injury or death from stun guns, according to the federal guidelines, developed by the Police Executive Research Forum in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Like the model guidelines, the state troopers’ policy advises against stunning individuals more than three times and suggests caution in use on the elderly or very young. But it makes no mention of people who are mentally ill, suicidal or intoxicated, except to advise caution with subjects in “excited delirium,” a label for intensely agitated, often intoxicated and delusional people.

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The federal guidelines also caution against stuns of more than 15 seconds — effectively three jolts — while warning of stun guns’ heightened risk to children and the elderly.

In one case, a Taser was deployed six times on a 71-year-old woman after she allegedly kicked a 37-year-old male trooper who had stopped her in Herkimer County for driving on the road shoulder, the trooper’s report showed. It was unclear how many shocks penetrated the fur coat of the woman, who was arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated.

In the case of the 13-year-old, a trooper was investigating a report of a runaway in Westchester County. “Suspect was verbally abusive and threatened violence,” the report says, noting the trooper was punched, sustaining a bruise under his left eye. The boy was shot in “middle chest” from 5 feet away with twin Taser darts, the report says, then given two follow-up jolts. The trooper was 47 pounds heavier and 5 inches taller than the boy and was accompanied by a second trooper, according to the report.

'Unlawful fleeing'

Beyond avoiding multiple stuns, the federal guidelines stipulate that “fleeing should not be the sole justification” for stun-gun use. About a third of the 91 subjects fled state police, and some reports suggest those people were aggressive or armed. But about a dozen did not appear to pose imminent harm, as the guidelines suggest.

In one report, a 16-year-old male fled after his car was pulled over at 2 a.m. in February 2012 in Sullivan County; he was stopped with a single Taser shock from 10 feet away. The report characterized the incident as “unlawful fleeing,” with the male “combative” and failing “to follow verbal directions.”

At least seven other cases had similar descriptions in the reports, showing subjects stunned after a vehicle or foot pursuit but giving no indication in the report that they were physically combative.

A 2011 stun-gun study by the New York Civil Liberties Union, focusing on eight police agencies in other areas of New York and not including the state police, found cases of unnecessary or poorly documented stun-gun incidents, excessive or prolonged shocks, and use on vulnerable groups including the elderly, children, mentally ill and intoxicated people.

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Corey Stoughton, an attorney for the Manhattan-based organization and the study’s author, said the Journal’s findings mirrored hers. “You have these consistent patterns over three years, and that is despite expert-recommended practices in recent years,” she said.

While most state police Taser incidents did not result in harm, 15 percent of subjects suffered minor injuries such as cuts and bruises to the face, hands and knees. In one area case, a 50-year-old man in Wallkill, described as actively resisting, suffered a broken rib and facial scrape in an incident in which he was shocked three times, according to the state police report.

Cardiac death

But at least one person has died since the state police began using Tasers. Pamela McCarthy, a 35-year-old Syracuse-area mother, died after she was stunned near her home by a state trooper last June. In a press conference following the death, Troop D Commander Maj. Rodney Campbell said that the woman, who had recently undergone heart surgery, was assaulting her young son and was high on bath salts, a substance known to cause violent behavior and enhanced pain tolerance. The trooper shocked her twice after failed attempts to control her using pepper spray, according to Campbell, who said it was unclear if her cardiac arrest was caused by the stun gun. The trooper was deemed to have acted appropriately, he said.

There were 511 deaths nationwide from mid-2001 through early 2012, including 14 in New York, according to the human-rights organization Amnesty International. Two local deaths have occurred following stun-gun deployment — one in 2010 in Rhinebeck in which a man was shocked twice and the other in 2007 in the City of Newburgh in which a man was shocked for 35 seconds, equal to seven shocks. Both were high on drugs when they were shocked with Tasers, according to police reports.

A report by the National Institute of Justice, an arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, found that most stun-gun related deaths involved multiple or prolonged discharges. The institute reported that many deaths involved people high on substances or who were mentally ill.

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In one state police report, a suicidal man was threatening to harm himself with a knife and was shot with a Taser from 12 feet away. The jolt caused him to fall and damage his front teeth, while bringing a quick end to a dangerous situation, according to the report.

But in another case, a mentally ill 24-year-old man fled his home into a wooded area after police arrived. He was not listed as armed or combative but rather “failed to follow verbal directions.” He was shocked twice in the Taser’s “drive stun” or pain-compliance mode, in which the device is held directly to the skin. The Department of Justice guidelines warn that repeated drive stuns can actually exacerbate situations by “inducing rage” and making subjects more combative.

Under the pending legislation, police agencies would be required to follow state-issued guidelines on stun-gun use and training. Aubry’s memo points to the federal guidelines as the gold standard. “The guidelines are a roadmap for responsible policy development and should be the basis of the New York rules and regulations,” the memo says.